Your Strengths Matter. Hold On to These 2 Ancient Principles to Develop Your Gifts
Protect your gifts by using these principles
Ever since December 2019, we all have learned one thing for real. We need more internal strength than ever before to believe, imagine, hope and create to accomplish what we have in our hearts. As for the state of the world, everything has become unpredictable and unstable. The virus and its mutations continue to display new symptoms and diseases as time passes. Let me not elaborate on what news media are already informing and remind you of the negativity again.
Moving forward, each day, we need hopeful energy that can spring up from within to:
1) drive us towards the right people, opportunities, places and things
2) pull us away from time and energy vampires
3) maintain whatever is valuable to us
4) fulfil our potential in different areas of our life by developing it
5) identify and develop appropriate habits as per your personality orientations (introvert, extrovert, ambivert) to create desired identities.
And for all these five dimensions of life to be in action, there are two foundational spiritual truths that we can trust to build our lives upon:
Principle 1: Do not despise the day of small beginnings
“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand”. (Bible- Zechariah 4:10; NLT)
It is human to navigate through various emotions while we are in the process of:
- building something new
- developing a new habit,
- working on our goals (financial, relational, emotional, physical and spiritual) and so forth.
On some days, it feels great, and on other days it feels like it takes forever, especially when we do not see the results at our desired time.
To carry on what we have begun, we need hope. Or else we might not have the consistency to take the right actions. To have hope, we need to repeatedly fill our minds with the right concepts, ideas and phrases that can move us in the right direction.
This year, choose what you will allow your mind to meditate upon. On days that I feel hopeless or disheartened, I sit down to remind myself of the hope I have when I believe in the value of small beginnings.
‘’Do not despise the day of small beginnings’’ is not only an encouraging reminder but also an insightful instruction to believe this:
- an initiative is better than inaction (even if it feels insignificant at the moment)
Principle 2: Be Accountable to God First
‘For the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand’.
The second part relives my mind and reminds me to operate from a place of internal rest rather than striving or obsessing about the result of trying to see the whole picture even before I begin.
When we learn to first derive our validation from him to do what we need to do, what we desire to do and how we do it, we recognise the opportunities that distract, deviate and demotivate us. We then realise that it is because of an overcoming spirit that springs from within.
It is because God has the best interests for us than people. Even more than people that mean and desire the best for us. For he knows what we, or they, might be limited to see yet.
Hence, it is always safe to secure our minds as we begin something new (or in the process of creating it) to grasp that we are accountable to God and that he rejoices when we stumble upon what he already had in mind for us.
To even develop what we have, we have to remember that he is the one who gave us before we rush to glorify any external factors or attributes we were born with or given.
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes]. — (James 1:17, AMP; Bible)
To be accountable to God as social beings do not mean that we should isolate ourselves from the right people. The thing is, we must discern to whom we must share what God has placed in our hearts at the time he destines. It ensures that their validation can only fall on what God had already sparked within us. And God will give us the right people as we learn to practice by being accountable to him first.
As we learn to not give up on what we have within us, let us remember to create a space in our mind with an ambience that reflects these qualities:
There’s a place in you that you must keep inviolate. You must keep it pristine. Clean. So, that nobody has a right to curse you or treat you badly. Nobody. No mother, father, no wife, no husband, no-nobody. You have to have a place where you say: ‘Stop it. Back up. Don’t you know I’m a child of God? — Maya Angelou
Liked what you just read? You can read more on Writers Telescope, where I pen on topics like Neuroscience, Psychology, Social Work, Creativity, Spirituality and more. Tap ‘allow’ notifications to stay in the loop when I publish new articles.
